Independent Lens - Season 19
Season 19
Episodes
Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary
Explore the life of jazz great John Coltrane; Denzel Washington speaks the words of Coltrane.
Shadow World
Explore the billion-dollar global arms trade through those who perpetrate and investigate it.
Supergirl
Meet Naomi, an Orthodox Jewish girl with a surprising talent: breaking world powerlifting records.
The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin
Unrest
Follow filmmaker Jennifer Brea's struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in this intimate film.
I Am Not Your Negro
Explore James Baldwin's unfinished book about race in America in this Oscar-nominated documentary.
The Force
Go deep inside the long-troubled Oakland Police Department as it struggles with demands for reform.
I Am Another You
Join Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang and a charming young drifter as they explore freedom and America.
Winnie
Explore the life of Winnie Mandela and her struggle to bring down apartheid.
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story Of Black Colleges And Universities
The rich history of America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) began before the end of slavery, flourished in the 20th century, and profoundly influenced the course of the nation for over 150 years — yet remains largely unknown. With Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities, the latest documentary from Stanley Nelson (Black Panthers, Freedom Riders) and Marco Williams, the powerful story of the rise, influence, and evolution of HBCUs comes to life.
A haven for Black intellectuals, artists, and revolutionaries — and a path of promise toward the American dream — HBCUs have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field while remaining unapologetically Black for more than 150 years. These institutions have nurtured some of the most influential Americans of our time, from Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois to Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison to Oprah Winfrey, Alice Walker to Spike Lee to Common. A key driver of Black social, political, and economic progress, HBCUs were also a place of unprecedented freedom for African American students and a refuge from the rampant racism raging outside the campus walls. Tell Them We Are Rising captures this important history to tell the dynamic story of Americans who refused to be denied a higher education and — in their resistance — created a set of institutions that would influence and shape the landscape of the country for centuries to come.
Rat Film
Trace Baltimore's history through a film that uses rats to chronicle oppression in poor communities.
Dolores
Meet the indomitable Dolores Huerta, who has tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice.
When God Sleeps
Explore the journey of Iranian musician Shahin Najafi after clerics issue a fatwa for his death.
The Art Of The Shine
Meet the unforgettable people who are turning the job of shoe shiner into an art form.
What Lies Upstream
Travel to West Virginia to uncover the truth behind a massive chemical spill.
Look & See: Wendell Berry's Kentucky
Look & See: Wendell Berry's Kentuckyis a portrait of the changing landscapes and shifting values of rural America through the voice of writer, farmer, and activist Wendell Berry. Centered in his native Henry County, Kentucky,Look & Seeis an elegy to a lost way of life that was once the bedrock of America–the culture of agriculture.
True Conviction
There's a new detective agency in Dallas, run by three exonerated men who all spent decades in prison. Their mission: to free other innocent people still behind bars.
After serving a combined 60 years in prison for crimes they did not commit, three recently exonerated Texans — Christopher Scott, Johnnie Lindsey and Steven Phillips — join forces to form the unlikeliest of investigative teams, on a mission to help wrongfully convicted prisoners obtain freedom like they did. Scott, a dad and grandfather, formed House of Renewed Hope to help fight for the gift of "a second chance at life." In True Conviction, brotherly bonds are formed out of shared hardships — lengthy prison sentences in a state that executes more inmates than any other.
No Man's Land
Go inside the 2016 standoff at Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
ACORN and the Firestorm
Explore the charged battle to take down ACORN, a controversial national community-organizing group.
Served Like a Girl
Join five women rebuilding their lives with humor and heart in the Ms. Veteran America Competition.
Recently Updated Shows
Out There
A drama that will depict the stealthy, surreptitious invasion of the land our farmers cherish, with devastating consequences, as his livelihood, homestead and family life are threatened by local county lines drugs dealers, essentially urban gangs using the British countryside as a field of operations, moving drugs and money between their inner-city hubs and provincial areas.
Swamp People
The Swamp People featured in this History series are the proud descendants of French Canadian refugees who settled in the swamp region of Louisiana in the 18th century. Cameras follow members of this fiercely independent group as they struggle to preserve their way of life in the Atchafalaya Basin during the most important time of the year for them: alligator-hunting season.
Pawn Stars
Long before banks, ATMS and check-cashing services, there were pawn shops. Pawning was the leading form of consumer credit in the United States until the 1950s, and pawn shops are still helping everyday people make ends meet. Pawn Stars takes you inside the colorful world of the pawn business. At the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas, three generations of the Harrison family - grandfather Richard, son Rick and grandson Corey - jointly run the family business, and there's clashing and camaraderie every step of the way. The three men use their sharp eyes and skills to assess the value of items from the commonplace to the truly historic, including a 16th-century samurai sword, a Super Bowl ring, a Picasso painting and a 17th-century stay of execution. It's up to them to determine what's real and what's fake, as they reveal the often surprising answer to the questions on everyone's mind, "What's the story behind it?" and "What's it worth?"
The Curse of Oak Island
The Curse of Oak Island documents brothers Rick and Marty Lagina as they pursue their lifelong dream of solving more than a 220-year old Oak Island mystery. For over two centuries, teams of searchers, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, have attempted to crack the code that will unearth the treasure believed to be buried on the small island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Armed with the knowledge of those that came before them, the muscle of heavy machinery and decades of engineering know-how, the Lagina's and their partners may be closer than anyone in history to finding the treasure that has so far claimed the lives of six men.
The Good Ship Murder
The Good Ship Murder is set aboard a luxury cruise liner touring everyone's favourite Mediterranean holiday hotspots bubbling with intrigue, rivalries, glamour, money and class divides – but its new cabaret singer, ex detective Jack Grayling, soon discovers there are also more sinister elements below the surface.
On a cruise out of Southampton, Jack meets newly promoted First Officer, Kate Woods. Fierce and ambitious, she's a woman in a man's world with plenty to prove. After a passenger is found murdered in their first port of call, Kate's dream of her own command is thrown into jeopardy and Jack finds himself thrust back into his former life as a detective. What follows is a wave of murder mysteries – each set against the backdrop of a different stunning coastal destination where the ship has dropped anchor.